Island Glenzier

Story-writing for learning about "People in Society"

Writer Linda Cracknell has had a "Lord of the Flies" experience at Glenzier Primary School in Dumfries and Galloway as she helped them to produce a class novel set on an imagined island. The P5-7 children had to address concepts of democracy and community, and consider rules, roles and responsibilites on behalf of the characters they created. The work was part of D&G CREATE's contribution to the national Arts Across the Curriculum research project and sits well with the development of the four capacities in A Curriculum for Excellence.

Read Linda's account of this collaborative experience

The opening to Chapter 1: What in the name of Dickens?

When Jessie first opened her eyes, all she saw was a blur of white. She felt very hot and there was something rough and grainy against her cheek. Her ears seemed to be full of squawks and squeals. She assumed they must be coming from her school-mates.

As her eyes began to focus, she saw many tiny pieces of shell, making up paper-white sand. There was a smell of salt, and a rhythmic rushing sound which could only be – yes, waves breaking . . .

‘Have you got the next chapter?’

That's how I’ve got used to being greeted by the children at Glenzier Primary School each Wednesday for the last few weeks, such was their enthusiasm to read what we had created together.

At Glenzier, I worked alongside teaching head David MacIsaac with P5-7 pupils on the curriculum topic ‘Our Community 1&2’. This is an area of ‘People in Society’ covering needs, rules, rights and responsibilities, conflict and decision-making.

For the first time in my writing career I was a ‘ghost-writer’. With ‘Lord of the Flies’ at the back of my mind, we decided on a story about a group of children stranded on an island without any grown-ups. I wrote the first chapter. The remaining six were guided by the pupils’ ideas for the storyline, included pieces of their own writing and was driven by the characters they had created. Each week I took a new chapter to them, including elements they recognised from their own work. Each chapter also contained a few surprises for them, leading to the next instalment.

The Glenzier children took up the project with great enthusiasm and imagination. They came up with solutions to some difficult problems for the island children and addressed dilemmas about how communities behave. Through the story development, we quite naturally talked about whether rules were a good thing, how to make decisions as a group, look after each other, and make sure our leaders are good ones.

We finished the project with an event and ‘world premiere’ of the final chapter with the rest of the school, parents and other visitors. The children came dressed (and smeared!) as if they were characters from the story, we ate mangoes and bananas and celebrated the arrival of the bound ‘proof’ copy of the whole book. A further edition may well appear before long with corrections, changes that Glenzier pupils choose, or even further chapters!

Find out more . . .

Read more about the work with the children by visiting Linda's Glenzier Island blog: http://islandglenzier.blogspot.com

Download the complete novel "Our Island Community" at the Dumfries and Galloway CREATE web site: http://www.createdumfriesandgalloway.com/aac_project.html

Visit the Modern Studies Association links page for more ideas about 5-14 People and Needs in Society: www.msa-scotland.org.uk